Variables 3: Trial
by Eelissuh
Summary: The Coralian has commandeered Anemone's mind, leaving Dominic helpless as he watches the woman he loves become a puppet for an all-consuming alien intelligence.


Variables – Trial

The poor boy poor boy he looks so confused. He must want to know but we know don't we, we know. What a strange mind this is, she is still here and we are here how strange. There is pain here too. We are the cause. We understand pain well the Command feels and thus we feel and now this new vessel…

_GET OUT!_

What feeling! What pain! How strange, so much contained in so little so like us and so human how strange how she resists _get out of me get out!_ But we want to know, you want and we want and thus we seek to know _get the fuck out of me!_ Such anger, such feeling. How different, how strange, from the other vessel _Dominic_ so calm, we suffer in silence but you _oh god my head get out!_ what unnecessary noise and hatred _get them out of me Dominic please_! How strange, we know now we know, but do not know.

Is this Dominic the one we see? How conflicted he is, is this love? The one called Eureka knows of this, feels similar to you, to us, to the new piece the new addition _what are you why_ is this human to feel to know this way_ are you doing this to me please_! Poor boy we know not how we must feel. Is it similar to how you, we, are feeling now? Is it anger? The vessel does not feel this way _what the hell are you saying stop_! It is not I it is we, you as we.

_I am NOT one of you! Get out of me!_ How strange you are, we want to know we know now or will soon know _Dominic!_ soon you will be we and we will know _Dominic PLEASE! We will know._

-

Anemone's hand twitched, tearing at the sheets as if moving apart from her body as a whole. An eerie, curious smile split her face and she leaned close to Dominic, scanning his face with her eyes.

"How strange," she buzzed. Her free hand reached out to explore his skin and Dominic jerked back. He feared this Anemone, unfamiliar and alien and acting wholly unnaturally. Her hand, thrashing like a dying fish amid the bedclothes sent a chill down his spine and his uniform was soaked in a cold sweat. Something shifted in her eyes; a brief glimpse of absolute terror and agony moved across her bloodshot gaze and Dominic knew something had hold of her. The extended hand withdrew and the thing that was no longer Anemone cocked its head to the side. Its lids sank, the eye shivered beneath it and her mouth clamped shut to a thin line. For a moment she was still, as if rebooting or accessing a difficult tap of information. The disconcerting hand momentarily froze, immobile in an awful contorted claw. Unable to tear his gaze away, Dominic did not notice the experimental smile pulling at Anemone's thin lips. Batting her soft lashes, Anemone painted a look of practiced concern on her face and buzzed softly.

"Dominic? What's the matter?" Her prey started, angling away from the strange creature clumsily using his beloved's face as a lure. That brief hint of panic he's seen take hold of her face appalled him. What was this monster and what had it done to Anemone? The thing pulled itself to the edge of the bed, a slice of ivory thigh exposing itself from the disorder of sheets and blankets. Its face shifted through a quick slide of emotions, settling on an uncomfortable mix of seduction and hurt.

"Don't you love me, Dominic?" He backed away from the edge of the bed. An inhuman buzzing blurred his hearing and a metallic taste lingered at the back of his throat. "Don't you love me?" the thing asked. The frozen hand shook and buried itself into the mattress. Anemone's already frazzled hair clung to her skin, wired with static electricity generated by her own whirling mind.

"Anemone…" Dominic whispered, choking back the horror in his voice, having to connect this fright before him with the name of the woman he loved. The creature's eyes blazed, a strange multihued gleam flaming behind her stare. The buzzing grew louder, heat filling the room and a pressing feeling of some great omnipresent presence gripped Dominic's senses. Anemone's face changed, taking on shape and expression no human structure should.

"_DOMINIC!" _she shrilled, "_Tell me Dominic!" _

"Anemone, please…"

"_Tell us, we want-NO! _DOMINIC STOP! _We must know!_" Anemone's hand shot up from the sheets, clutching at her shoulder and attempting to pull her body down. Fear, anger, confusion and, briefly, childlike innocence flashed across her face. "Dominic please _no, we don't understand_ stop them! God, my head _Eureka_ make them stop _get out_ Dominic! _Get them out of me please!_" Anemone floundered, her shoulder and arm digging into the ruined bed while her face craned upward, eyes bearing into Dominic's. The fearful blaze was gone, replaced with the tear-streaked, frightened pleading of just Anemone.

"Dominic, please…" she wailed, sinking back to the bed. "Please…I'm _afraid_."


End file.
